the process was set in motion today at the pentagon. >> not everyone is going to be able to be a combat soldier. but everyone is entitled to a chance. >> brown: with that, defense secretary leon panetta-- joined by the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, general martin dempsey-- announced he's ending a 1994 ban on women in combat roles. >> as secretary, when i've gone to bethesda to visit wounded warriors, when i've gone to arlington to bury our dead, there is no distinction that's made between the sacrifices of man and women in uniform. they serve, they're wounded and they die right next to each other. the time has come to recognize that reality. >> brown: nearly 300,000 women have deployed over the past 11 years in iraq and afghanistan, where the frontlines aren't so clearly drawn. and 152 have died there. today's decision opens up some 230,000 battlefront positions to women, many in army and marine infantry units. commanders will have to decide whether women will be eligible for elite forces, such as the navy seals and the army's delta force. >> let me be clear-- we're not talking ab